Some dogs are born to be service animals....

... and then there's Ryker.... get ready to giggle...

https://youtu.be/ND63UPelkIw

You certainly can't fault his intensity...

"At work - Dining Hall"

A friend sent me a picture that was taken while I was volunteering on the dining hall line:

I really enjoy volunteering at the Dining Hall - plus I get a free meal from it!

A road trip to Houston

SIL International, where I work, gets a food donation each Monday from a food distribution warehouse that is near Houston. Our Center Director and Associate Center Director had made the drive a few times to determine whether the cost of renting the truck and fuel was offset by the value of the food donation... and after a few weeks, decided that it was (the dining hall uses the donated food to reduce their expense in purchasing food).

A volunteer came onboard at about the time we were deciding that this was a worthwhile task who had past experience driving a UPS truck, so he has been doing the drives for the past few months. Unfortunately, he is having some health issues, so substitute drivers are needed, and Doug, the Associate Center Director, asked if Carl and I would like to make the drive... and we agreed.

From last week, Monday, December 9:

It was dark when we rented the truck on Sunday, and dark when we started our drive from the campus to Houston, but the sun started coming up about halfway through our drive south... beautiful!

We noted where Buckees was for a stop on the way northward...

Not much quantity...

.... but some good items!

Including quite a lot of grapes!

Today, December 16, when we drove down...

Today I noticed at the Gordon's food warehouse that they have vending machines with "interesting" wares - socks and "hot pockets"...

Our Penske truck ready for contents... and blankets/quilts that we brought from the ILC to wrap the pallets...

I take pictures of all the contents and text to Susie, the dining hall manager, so she has some idea of what is coming...

Yogurt, lemon juice, and milk...

Fresh veggies...

Carl "wrapping" the goods so they stay cold on the drive...

One of the guys at the warehouse taught Carl how to operate the dock plate... scary that he can do this now...

Closing up the truck and the warehouse door...

It is a rather long drive (4 hours each way without traffic), and the center has to rent a truck and spend money on fuel, but the calculations have shown that it is worth it for the value brought into the dining hall... and we are able to have a higher quality of food (shrimp, crab) than would normally be purchased to serve in the dining hall.

And Carl and I enjoy the drive as it gives us lots of time to talk while we're volunteering for SIL International!

A Personal Update

Dear Friends and Family -- I would like to share some news with you that you might find surprising, but which, I hope, you will be appreciative to God for... as I am...

About 5 years ago, Dwayne and I met several Christian couples in Quartzsite, AZ at the Escapees Christian Fellowship RV get-together in the desert. This was before we had decided to go fulltime in the RV, but we were well-along toward making that decision. One of the couples that we met, Sue and Carl Williams, were also recent retirees and were also evaluating going fulltime in their RV. We enjoyed getting to know them, as well as other folks in the Christian Fellowship group. Through the years, we encountered each other several times, at Christian Fellowship gatherings, Escapees Escapades, and, most recently, in the fall of 2018, when they were staying in the Chicago area and we were looking for a campground where we could stay while visiting my aunt in Arlington Heights. We stayed at the same campground and were able to visit with them while we were there.

Then, in early 2019, I lost Dwayne to cancer, after a relatively short illness.... I was devastated... I so loved Dwayne. As I worked through my grief, I have been seeking God to determine what He might have next for me. I have been volunteering at the International Linguistics Center (ILC). I gave God several options of what He might want to choose for me to do "next". I wasn't hearing any answers, but, as I often said to friends who would ask, "It is on a need-to-know basis, and God doesn't think I need to know yet." I was trying to be patient.

Later in 2019, Sue had a relapse of the cancer that she first battled in 2017. The cancer returned with a vengeance. Sue passed away a few months ago...

Carl's posts on Facebook broke my heart; I could identify with so many of the feelings he expressed. I responded to one of his posts, and he emailed me - having been counseled by another couple in our RV Christian Fellowship group that they thought that I had gone through something similar and might have some suggestions on things that helped me. The one thing I have learned through grieving is that everyone's grief is unique, and the only One who really knows what you're going through is God. But, I also have learned, from 2 Corinthians 1, that God comforts us that we might be able to comfort others. (Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Cor 1:3-4). I remember sharing with my counselor here at the ILC that I wished that there was a guy who could walk with Carl through his grief, and, if I recall correctly, he said, "Yes, that would be good, but it would be unlikely... guys just don't."

So, Carl and I started emailing... and... my heart started being drawn to him. I lectured myself, "You're supposed to be comforting him, he isn't someone for you to be interested in!" I asked God to remove these feelings that were not appropriate. Unbeknownst to me, his heart was also being drawn to me... I've gone back and read the emails - there is nothing in them other than our sharing of our grief, prayers for each other, concern... but God started drawing our hearts together. After emailing for a while, Carl recommended that we talk on the phone. On that call, the open, honest communication with each other continued.

So, over the next weeks and months, God developed our friendship -- we seemed to have no limit on how much we had to say in emails and in phone calls. We decided that we'd really like to see each other, so in mid-November, Carl planned to visit me at the ILC. We wanted to consider whether he may want to come to the ILC to volunteer, and for us to determine whether God might want us to pursue a more serious relationship. We had been praying together within our emails and during our phone calls - we only want what God wants in our lives...

Both of us were very nervous that the relationship that we had developed via emails and phone calls would not be able to survive being together in the same place!

Amazingly, (or, maybe not, since God was involved!), our feelings for each other became more apparent when we finally met each other face to face.

So, at the beginning of December, Carl moved his RV to the ILC. We are looking forward to seeing what God will do. We have been praying and seeking God's will. Each of us were blessed to have a long and loving marriage with our late spouses. Each of us are still feeling sorrow in the loss of our spouse. But we are amazed by God bringing us to each other.

By the way, we've been praying for you, too... we've been praying for our friends and family, that God would prepare your hearts for what He is doing with us. We have been so shocked and amazed by what God has built between us, that we can't imagine but that you would also be shocked and incredulous. If we weren't living it, we don't think we could believe it!

So, we would like to ask for your prayers for us - that God will give us wisdom, that He would guide and direct each step, that He would prevent us from making any steps that would not be in His will. We covet your prayers.

By the way - you remember back in the beginning of this "essay", I mentioned that I had offered several options for God to choose from for my next steps? Well... this was NOT on the table - I had NOT offered an option for God to bring me into a relationship. But, I believe that God's hand is in this....

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your prayers...

"What I want for Christmas is experiences..."

A friend of mine recently shared an insight that she received...

She was thinking about her Christmas list, and what she wanted to tell her family that she wanted to receive this Christmas. She didn't need any *thing*, but what she wanted was time with each of the people that she loved. She wanted to ask for an "experience" with each of them - a special meal, or a visit to a place they would both enjoy, or just time to sit and talk.

As she pondered this, she said she heard God say, "That's what I want too."

Isn't that right? Isn't that what God asks for from each of us? For us to just have time with Him, to sit with Him, to talk with Him and to listen to Him.

I was so touched by what she had said...

Oral scriptures

Sometimes the people groups for whom translations are done are not literate, particularly not in their own language (often the linguists coming in to learn the language create the alphabet (orthography) and create the first written materials in the language). As a result, sometimes having recordings of the scriptures are more important than having the written versions.

One of the early ways to produce these oral versions were by phonograph records... but... how to have phonographs in remote villages? Enter the "CARDTALK":

The record would be turned at the appropriate speed by someone using a stick or pencil. The needle on the upright part of the cardboard transferred the sound and the cardboard triangular piece created a speaker!

Ingenious, eh?

A visit to the warehouse

There is a warehouse on campus where people donate items that they no longer have use for, and others can claim items that they need... I visited there recently and took a few pictures...

I guess you can't read the labels... let me zoom in...

I thought the label was funny, but then when I looked in the bin, there were no boxes... I think the only word that might be correct on the sign would be "Unsorted"....

Looking down from the second floor - most of the larger pieces of furniture are on the ground floor.

Some of it is stored up on high shelving...

It is interesting to see what is available. If you are looking for something specific, the warehouse manager can keep an eye out for things for you...

Just another example of how the folks on the campus watch out for each other!